This week’s notebook highlights several teams and recaps some of the past week’s action.
By Mike Prince, Sportswriter
Wins have been hard to come by this year for a Harry S. Truman squad that is playing in a very tough Suburban One American Conference, but last Thursday saw a scoring outburst by the 3-8-0 Tigers.
Thanks to an unheard of 13-point performance by Zach Bennett, who scored a whopping nine goals, Truman cruised to a 14-4 win over Hatboro-Horsham.
Billy Keyser added two goals and an assist for Truman, which also got one goal and four assists from Keegan Kreinakker, four assists from Mikey Cox and a goal and two assists from Tyler Bucci, but Bennett was the story of the game.
“He’s been itching to go,” said Truman coach Mike McVey, who pointed out that Bennett had been out nearly two months with a concussion. “He was our leading scorer when he went out, and he’s been on the bench and I think that was just a buildup of being ready to play and the team coming together. He actually had a rough start to the game, but then he caught fire and that was it. It was pretty impressive.”
With only 12 skaters on the roster when the team is at full strength, McVey believes that his team can finish strong in the final month if they can remain healthy.
“We have a solid crew and we need everybody,” he said. “When we’re without our top players, we’re not deep enough to handle everything. That’s what gets us. I hope we can keep everybody out there and have a real strong end to the season.”
In a losing effort, the Hatters were led by Zach Aubry, who scored all four of his team’s goals.
The American Conference’s first and second place teams, Archbishop Wood and Upper Moreland, squared off in a makeup game on Monday night.
And thanks to two goals from Jordin Holmes and a 34-save performance by goalie Jared Burch, widely considered as the best goalie in the Suburban One League, the Bears were able to come out with a 3-3 tie against the Vikings (9-1-2).
Though they were unable to get the win, the tie was huge for the Bears (8-2-2), who lost to Wood, 9-3, back on Nov. 16.
“We would’ve liked to have come out with the win, but for our guys, it was a great step up,” Upper Moreland coach Jim Stampler said. “They showed they can play with Wood and even beat them with a couple of bounces. We’ve been on quite a roll, and we’re getting better every week.
“We’re getting more confident every week and we’re going in the right direction, that’s for sure. Rather than playing shorthanded like we did last time we faced (Wood), we played with three lines, and I think that made a big difference. Part of it was the confidence because we’re playing so well.
Upper Moreland has not lost a game since Nov. 29 when the Bears fell to Abington 3-1. Since then, the Bears have gone 6-0-1 in their past seven games, and they will look to stretch that unbeaten streak to eight when they face Upper Dublin on Thursday at Wintersports Ice Arena.
On the other end of the American Conference standings, Plymouth Whitemarsh and Hatboro-Horsham will square off on Thursday at 9 p.m. at Wintersports Ice Arena.
Despite the Colonials’ struggles this season, PW (1-8-0) was able to put four goals on the board two games ago against Upper Dublin before getting shut out by Lansdale Catholic, 10-0, last Thursday.
With the Hatters still winless on the season, this Thursday is a good opportunity for PW to get its first win since defeating Hatboro-Horsham, 11-1, back on Dec. 13.
In the Continental Conference, while North Penn remains in first place, Central Bucks South continues to make a run for the top spot in the standings.
After defeating Abington by a score of 7-2 last Thursday, CB South came out with maybe its biggest win of the year, a 3-2 victory over North Penn last Friday.
While Nick DeLaurentis led the way last Thursday with two goals and three assists in the win over the Ghosts (7-5-1), Connor Bechtel led the way in Friday’s game, scoring two goals en route to giving North Penn only its second loss of the entire season.
With the win, CB South (10-2-0) now is just one point behind the Knights but with one game in hand and the ability to control its own destiny moving forward. Bechtel not only leads the Titans with 16 goals and 26 assists this season in 12 games played, but he leads the entire Continental Conference, holding an incredible 12-point advantage over the next top scorer, North Penn’s Caleb Witzaney.
The Titans saw goalie Jeff Pelkowski stop 23 of 25 shots in their win over the Knights, and they will face Central Bucks East on Wednesday at Hatfield Blue (9 p.m.) with hopes to win their eighth game in a row.
Since losing to La Salle and Council Rock South by a combined three goals back in December, the Titans have outscored their opponents 45-15 in their seven consecutive wins.
As for CB East, which currently sits in fourth place in the Continental Conference with a record of 5-6-0, the Patriots were unable to keep the momentum going from their seven-goal win over Central Bucks West one week earlier as they fell to Pennridge by a score of 3-1 last Thursday.
Joe Ridolfi scored the lone goal for CB East, which still remains in the hunt for a playoff spot.
Pennridge (5-8-0) was led by Tyler Shagen’s two goals and one assist and goalie Steven Wilms’ 33 saves on 34 shots in the winning effort.
In the National Conference, Pennsbury (2-14-0), which played to two very close losses in previous games, found an offensive spark against Holy Ghost Prep on Monday, but the Falcons were unable to step up defensively, losing 13-5 in a non-conference meeting.
In the loss, the Falcons were led by John Thornton and Jason Millen, who scored two goals apiece. Millen also added an assist, while Larry Kolk also scored
“We’ve been playing a lot better than we were earlier in the season,” Pennsbury coach John Bria said. “Unfortunately, my goalie got kicked out on a controversial penalty, so we had to put our freshman goalie out there for his first action of the year, and he was a bit rattled and that was the difference. It was a good game for us, though, and we started putting the puck in the net, which we haven’t done in awhile. I’m very pleased with our progress.”
With the playoffs out of the question, Bria just hopes that his seniors can have a strong end to the season.
“I just want us to finish strong with only two games left,” he said. “We know we’re not going to the postseason, so we just want them to give it everything they have to make their season end on a high note, especially for the seniors on the team.”
Sitting above Pennsbury in the rankings is Neshaminy (4-9-2), a team unlikely to make the playoffs, but a team that cannot yet be counted out.
After having to forfeit a game last Friday with the inability to put a full team on the ice because of the inclement weather, the Redskins are now attempting to make up the game they had scheduled against Council Rock North.
And with CR South, CB East and CB West on the schedule moving forward, Neshaminy coach Rich Sherno - the assistant coach who stepped in for Sean Slack - knows that his team has to win out if they want to have a chance at playing past the regular season.
“We’ve been playing OK,” Sherno said. “We beat Tennent and then played a good game against Abington and I think we have a slim shot at the playoffs. We’d have to win out, but I’m looking for them to come out and play like they have their backs against the wall because, well, they do. We have a must-win situation from here on out.”
Neshaminy and CR South will play at Grundy Rink A on Thursday at 7:20 p.m.
In other Suburban One play this week, Wood and Hatboro-Horsham will play on Wednesday night, as well CB South and CB West. On Thursday, Souderton and CB East will face off, as will Wissahickon and Lansdale Catholic.
In perhaps the best matchup of the week, CB South and North Penn will play in a rematch of last week’s 3-2 CB South win when the top-two Continental Conference teams square off on Thursday night at Hatfield Blue at 7:20 p.m.
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